I know most of the Bethesda RPGs have massive mod support, and there’s games like Minecraft that have more mods than anyone can imagine. I would consider those games pretty playable in their vanilla states. Would you say there are any games that were “saved” by modding? Or that are still kept alive by thriving modding communities? What are some of your favorite mods?

  • Whar@beehaw.org
    2·
    2 years ago

    I love vanilla Terraria and Factorio but there are really fun mods out there that expand those games and don’t let me play anything else!

    • joonazan@discuss.tchncs.de
      1·
      2 years ago

      Factorio has the best modding API and user experience out there.

      Some mods are not possible due to no native code mods but the devs add things to the modding API for every reasonable request.

    • Cambionn@feddit.nl
      2·
      2 years ago

      I know I’m a minority in this, but I unironically prefer vanilla Minecraft, it’s simple in a good way 😅.

  • sionainn@sh.itjust.works
    1·
    2 years ago

    Seconding Rimworld, but even without mods it is an amazing game with easily 1k+ hours of gametime. My favorite mods are QoL mods, or ones that add additional flavor to my colonists. If I could only pick a single mod to install, ever, it would be Common Sense.

    Outside of Bethesda and Minecraft, the other one that comes to mind is The Sims. More of a niche following, but for those that love deleting pool ladders, mods are necessary for happiness, flavor, and adding actual challenge.

  • Phantom_Engineer@lemmy.ml
    1·
    2 years ago

    Civ 4 had a great modded scene. The Colonization remake/spinoff in particular has a must-have mod in the way of The Authentic Colonization. The main game, though, had loads and loads of incredible mods. My personal favorite was the Ryse series of mods, which tried to more accurately model the rise and fall of civilizations via various mechanics. I have a lot of hours in the random map variant of it, Ryse Rand.

  • PenguinCoder@beehaw.org
    1·
    2 years ago

    Definitely RimWorld. There’s so many mods that improve the base game. From QoL mods that make you wonder why that isn’t default in the vanilla game, to mods that complety overhaul the actual win condition. Just overall a really fun, replayability, frustrating game.

    Use mods though. It’ll make it better. Check out p-music mod while you’re at it.

  • jaamulberry @beehaw.org
    1·
    2 years ago

    RimWorld. It’s amazing what people can do from QOL to whole new factions or weapons. Amazing and the dev is very helpful during updates to try and not break mod support. Just blown away.

    • ClammyMantis488@lemmy.ml
      1·
      2 years ago

      Half of the problem IMO is Java edition runs so poorly mods are necessary to play the game most of the time. And there’s so many quality of life mods that should be base game but Mojang just doesn’t seem to care about.

    • dethmasta@beehaw.org
      0·
      2 years ago

      Skyrim vr definitely needs mods to make it worth playing though, the base game is so barebones it’s not immersive in the slightest.

      • jenbanim@beehaw.org
        1·
        2 years ago

        Yeah, in this thread there are a lot of good games that are significantly improved by mods. Skyrim VR goes from being basically worthless to one of the best VR games available with mods. HIGGS and VRIK saved that game imho. Bless the modders

  • simple@lemmy.ml
    0·
    2 years ago

    The original Doom for sure. I don’t know if they count as mods since they’re technically running on a modified version of the engine, but there is still a massive community making maps, mods, and even new game modes for it. Most recently the “MyHouse.wad” map for it has exploded in popularity. I’ve had so much fun over the years with doom mods, it’s a treasure trove that most people have no idea exists.

    There’s even entire new games built on Doom. Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart (stupid name, I know) is a fantastic free open source karting game with a decent community, and it’s technically just a doom mod.

    If anyone here is going to play a single doom mod to see what’s up, I recommend Doom: The Golden Souls Remastered. It’s good fun.